The Four Stages

An individual voluntary agreement (IVA) is a legally binding agreement between you and a creditor to pay back debts over time. Essentially you must be insolvent. Simply put your combined debts must be higher value than your combined assets.

 

Before the IVA is started

The insolvency practitioner (IP) should explain all options available to you before you commit to an IVA.

 

Step 1: Consider an interim order

In certain situations, your IP may apply to the court for an interim order to stop your creditors chasing you while the IVA is being arranged, alternatively if they do lodge anything with the court your IP would ask for the matter to be adjourned while the IVA is sorted.

 

Step 2: Situation evaluation

Your IP will examine your situation to determine how assets are treated, the aim is to create a repayment plan to address your debts. You will need to offer as much as you can realistically afford, otherwise, the creditors may not agree to it.

 

Step 3: The proposal

Your IP will help you construct a proposal document including full financial details of your situation, the suggested length of the agreement, the percentage of the debt that would be repaid etc. The proposal document is sent to your creditors and the court. If the IP believes you are being unreasonable or acting improperly (such as “hiding” assets etc) they may recommend to the court that the IVA be rejected.

 

Step 4: Creditor’s meeting

Your IP will call a creditors' meeting and explain the situation, your creditors will then vote on whether to accept the offer. We recommend that you are included in the meeting to answer any specific questions. If the majority vote to accept the plan, then your IP will report this to the court, the plan will be binding on those who voted against it.

 

How we can help

Lestons are not registered as financial advisors and can therefore not give specific advice, we can however provide you with access to our recommended professional financial advisor who can give you great advice. Please note we make no commission from these referrals but do need clients to open a case so that we can prepare a financial brief for them.

To gain our assistance you need to open a case, this is done by simply clicking on the link at the top of the page, you will then need to deposit a sum equal to one hour’s usage, upon receipt of these funds you will be assigned your personal caseworker who will telephone you to discuss the matter and make suggestions on how to proceed.

 

Please note your caseworker can only give generic advice, their role is to prepare your details for handling by our appointed financial advisor and to act as your point of contact, they will also issue you with your Password and PIN, these will be needed to log onto your client dashboard. From your dashboard you will be able to manage and view every aspect of your case, upload documents, images, files etc.